A family of “thug” landlords who seriously assaulted vulnerable people who they did not want in their flats have been jailed for more than 30 years.

Three brothers were involved in a series of serious attacks at properties their father’s company owned across Bedford.

Mohammed Said, Mohammed Shakeel and Mohammed Shamrez attacked their victims with weapons including a metal pole, bolt croppers, baseball bats and a meat cleaver.

They filmed their sick attacks on mobile phones, with this video evidence later used to convict them. Their victims suffered injuries including a broken leg and fractured ribs.

We have released footage of the trio carrying out some of their attacks, to demonstrate the kind of thuggish and violent behaviour they engaged in before they were caught.

These three individuals operated a brutal enforcement business of violence and intimidation targeting anyone they considered ‘undesirable’ in their properties.

All of their victims were vulnerable in some way. These men preyed on vulnerable victims as part of their enforcement scheme.

Some of the video footage we uncovered in our investigation is truly shocking. Their victims have been left understandably terrified by these attacks, and I want to thank all of them for their bravery in coming forward and cooperating with us to put these individuals behind bars.

What we have seen here is how violence, exploitation and organised crime are linked. Vulnerable people right here in Bedfordshire are at risk of being groomed, taken advantage of and abused by men like this, in the name of all manner of criminal activity.

We all have a responsibility to be aware of this. This is not a distant problem. This exploitation is happening right here in our communities.

If you have concerns about someone or something, please report it to us.

Mohammed Shamrez, 38, of Bromham Road, Bedford, pleaded guilty to one count of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, two counts of attempted GBH and two counts of actual bodily harm (ABH). He was sentenced to 14 years and six months.

Mohammed Shakeel, 26, of Bromham Road, Bedford, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted GBH. He was jailed for six years.

Mohammed Said, 24, of Bromham Road, Bedford, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted GBH, one count of causing GBH with intent and one count of ABH. He was jailed for 10 years and nine months.

We need your help to take action against those exploiting people.

We encourage our partner agencies to use our multi-agency information submission forms to highlight concerns around exploitation, which you can access online.

You can also report any concerns, no matter how small, through to us via the online reporting centre on our website.

Raising awareness is equally as important. This is why we have collated a range of marketing materials like posters, leaflets and social media graphics you can use however you see fit to help us spread the word about violence and exploitation and what to look out for.

You can also access a range of other materials about different crime types via the same link.

The Bedfordshire Against Violence and Exploitation website also contains further information about the partnership response to all forms of violence and exploitation linked to organised crime in Bedfordshire.

Thank you for your support. We can tackle exploitation and protect the vulnerable, together.

Detective Constable Matthew Jarman

Bedfordshire Police